New Delhi, March 25 -- Scammers in the US who share tricks with one another on social media are pushing auto loan fraud to record levels in the world's largest economy. The dollar amount of car loans involving fraud grew last year by more than 16 per cent to $9.2 billion, according to a report from risk management firm Point Predictive.

In dollar terms that's about 1.3 per cent of all auto lending. The increase is much faster than the growth in total lending identified by the US Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

The rising numbers of swindlers is likely contributing to the record share of borrowers that are falling behind on their auto loan payments, as fraudulent loans are more likely to end up in default.

One of the fastest growing t...